Photo Collages Increase Profit Margins for Your Photography Studio

Or, How to Do Things Your Customers Will Love

People are always asking me what are some of the ways, in the portrait market, I close a sale and bring in revenue. Before I even begin to speak about one of my favorite, tried and true methods, let me say I hope NO ONE is still using paper proofs.  Not only are they so last decade, they are also detrimental to your bottom line.  They’re there, already printed and so tempting for people to want to take home and ‘think about’ (translation: scan).  Also, they can encourage clients to devalue your work, because well….there they are, in those convenient little sizes that just seem so…….cheap.  And you’re not going to do anything with these anyway, so why can’t I take them home with me????[…]

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Passive Income from Microstock Photography

Or, The Unexpected ‘Sleeper’ Hit

The image below is a masterpiece.  A work of art.  A thing of  beauty.  Right?  Nah.  Not even.

However, this little jewel has downloaded a stunning 282 times in the first half of February.   It has earned $93 for me during that time.  And what was I doing, while that money was pouring in?  A little web surfing, some grocery shopping, a tad of house cleaning, a few marketing calls, a couple of marketing emails, some nice long walks around the neighborhood.  In other words, for THAT money, I wasn’t doing a thing even remotely associated with that image.  Since I originally uploaded it, more than three years ago, it has downloaded more than 500 times, earning around $200.  I’m not exactly sure why there has been such a run on this particular image over the past 12 days, but I’m happy to take the money : )

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